A blog about gaming with miniatures... and history, SF, fantasy and more

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Battle Report - Berlin 1945 revisited

The
other week my family was away on a skiing vacation, and we took the chance to
get a whopping big game in.

Daniel
was umpire and stayed close to Berlin, just as last
year. As usual based on a real battle, in this case the battle of Wriezen, April 17 1945.

The board from the Russian edge

Daniel
and I set up the gaming board the night before, and were ready for action in
the morning. Small houses, a woods and some fields, a factory complex, a town, railwaystation and a canal with bridge.

The road leading to the bridge and city centre

The woods, we see the factory in the background

First
to come was Jonas, and he and I got the German force. We had some limitations
as to where we could set up and knew there were Volksturm somewhere, but we
would not know where until we had set up. Mostly hastily set up defences with a
wide variety of troops. All our troops were set up hidden, mainly a thin line
defending the outskirts of the town. We had some mobile reserves in the town
square and a depleted battery of 81mm mortars near the bridge.

Last bread served

One
concern was the limbered 88 that we desperately wanted to move back through the
main road and emplace in the town centre.

The road to Wriezen

Roos,
Fredrik and Mikael dropped in and were given command of the Russians.

The
battle starts slowly with Russian smoke and cautious advance.A short fire fight between recce forces
leaves one Italian made Autoblinda 41 in flames and one BA 64 immobilised.

You're supposed to find stuff with your recce troops, but this.... This photo is taken a second before a panzerfaust takes out the BA-64.

Two
SU-76 advances, and one is lost while trying to cross a road. Bad die rolls
followed by a Hetzer shot. They really got flimsy armour…The other one meets
the same destiny later.

The hordes advancing, but all armour in flames

Bad
rolls (and more than a bit stupidity on my part) killed a Hetzer in an infantry
assault.

Our
mortars get into action placing some well-aimed shots in the middle of the
bunched up Russian infantry. We also get requests from units on our flank for
mortar support, and we give them the most of our fire missions.

Do you notice the lone Russian Big Man. Our sniper noted him...

We
have two snipers on the board and they manage to take out two of the scarce Russian
Big Men, and another falls from a mortar round. With only one Big Man left,
they are in big trouble.

A
flanking force of scouts suddenly appears behind the German lines, but they are
cut down by cross-fire.

We
get radio messages from the units on our right flank that it looks really bad
there (it later turns out that our mortar support buys us some time on our
right flank, something that probably saved our day). We make the decision to immediately
draw back all of our troops into the town, to be able to defend the bridge.

That
withdrawal works rather smoothly, but we lose some infantry to machineguns and
artillery.

We
get frantic calls from our flank that the defences there have broken. The
Russians are coming!

Out of ammo, the mortar crew picks up their rifles.

One squad vs an 88, a StuG, a Stummel and assorted infantry.

Stummel lost to artillery fire

And
they come rushing over the bridge, but as we have redeployed they are cut to
pieces. T-34:s materialize on the other side of the river, starting a fire-fight
with my hull down Hetzer.

About
here most all players have left hours before, only Daniel and I fight it out,
just to see what happens. We call it a night. A very late night…

My rating system

5 - A masterpiece. You have to read/see/visit.4 - Really good. Strongly recommended it if it is a subject of interest, and probably worth reading/seeing/visiting if not.3 – It’s OK. If it’s a subject you’re interested in, it’s probably worth reading/seeing/visiting. Otherwise you can probably skip it.2 - Well, not really... If it’s your subject you could possibly find something in it worth your while. Otherwise stay clear.1 - Stay clear. This is a waste of your time.